March 28, 2005
3/28 - THE REAL OCEAN NEWS: Scharksch!
In case anyone has forgotten, this is what graced the cover of US News & World Report last August -- a leaping great white shark with the heading, "Mysteries of the Oceans," and nary a word about the so-called "ocean crisis" reported by Pew and the USCOP. And so here on the cover of The Sun is an article about great whites which, when you read the article, is about nothing more than some tourist dude who got into a shark cage in South Africa and guess what ... he saw a shark.
The point is, the general public would rather read a hundred more shark stories than even one beautifully written essay about the fate of the oceans. Nothing wrong with that. It's just essential that ocean conservationists realize this is the general situation and the gradient against which all ocean conservation communication efforts must swim.
If you have a great book on ocean conservation, you might want to put a
great white on the cover to sell more copies. Maybe even in the title,
like, "In a Perfect Ocean ... with lots of Great White Sharks!" Just
thinking of marketing.